Alternate Steps
by Old Fiat
Summary: They claim themselves to be opposites, but they’re really exactly the same. Please read and review! The main characters are Ryan and Chad.


**Alternate Steps**

Old Fiat

Summary: They claim themselves to be opposites, but they're really exactly the same.

Notes: This doesn't have any pairing, but I guess you could see it as Chyan if you wanted to. This is also my... first _posted_ HSM fan fiction. (I've written one other which is a multi-chapter and is still in progress.)

Disclaimer: I don't own HSM (1 or 2). However, nFR and I are trying to buy stocks in Disney.

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Chad always walked right beside Troy—slightly to the right, sometimes one step behind.

He was always there to listen to him. He would sit quietly as his friend poured out his worries and fears into him.

He would always defend his best friend in a second. It didn't matter if it was an accusation from Mrs. Darbus for a gunshot, he would jump in front of whatever it was and accept its blow. A willing sacrifice.

But the sacrifice meant he still had his position next to the golden boy.

---

Ryan always walked right two paces behind Sharpay—no left, no right, directly behind.

If she made a small mistake on stage, he was always there to cover it up. If she came up with an idiotic routine for them, he was always there to make himself look like more of a fool. He could always manage to smile through the humiliation of dancing in a fish costume. Or singing _Sisters_. Or playing Romeo when she was Juliet.

He was always there to hug her when the whispered insults finally broke through her tough armor. He would push her head against his chest and let her cry on his silk jacket even though he knew it would ruin it.

But his millions of small acts of kindness were only rewarded with a place right behind Sharpay, and but that's all the payment he needed.

---

Chad put up with the looks and remarks just to keep that spot.

He knew what people said about him. They said he wasn't anything. They said he would never be anything because he was always staying next to Troy. He would never stop being just "Troy Bolton's friend".

But he never had to listen to them, because that's all he needed to be. He didn't want to be his own person, he didn't know how.

Everyone said he could be a separate person if he just stepped out of the captain's shadow. But he couldn't, so he wouldn't.

His captain and that space were the only things he wanted.

---

Ryan knew what people whispered about him behind their hands as he walked past them, two steps behind Sharpay.

They always said he was just his sister's poodle; that he was just someone to make her look good; that she was only keeping him there until she found a replacement. He didn't believe them. He trusted his sister's every word. She would always be there for him.

He didn't need to be his own person. She was there in front of him to lead him through life.

---

Chad kept his space next to Troy until _she_ came.

For once, he couldn't stand listening to Troy speak about his thoughts and feelings. There was too much new flooding into their lives. Troy was no longer only interested in basketball, now there was singing and _her_.

He couldn't stand her presence. How close she and Troy were. She caused too much change. She brought down the walls of the basketball team's castle.

Chad's life had once been a simple duet with a plain piano in the background, now fifty new voices had appeared. Each person singing as loud as they could so as to be heard. An army of violins had also marched in with a wind section.

His life was too loud now and he couldn't escape the noise.

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Ryan stayed behind Sharpay, even after Gabriella arrived; it just wasn't as quiet as it used to be there.

She had wounded them by taking the leads with Troy. But Shapray, unlike Ryan, who shut up and hoped for the best next time, spoke about it non-stop. She listed Gabriella's flaws. She named all the reasons why she was far more talented than Gabriella.

Ryan remained behind his sister though. He quietly listened to all these moans about how unfair life was. He never once interrupted her.

He could have left for a quieter existence at anytime, but he wouldn't. His life was a duet, not a solo.

---

Chad always remembered when Troy said those horrible words.

It was March 23rd at 3:45 PM, himself, Troy and _her_ were walking down the hallway to leave the school. Chad stood beside Troy, slightly to the right, as always. Gabriella was on Chad's other side. She seemed confused as to why she wasn't standing next to Troy, but she didn't say anything about it. Troy kept looking over at her and smiling stupid soppy smiles. Every time his friend's head turned towards her, Chad burned with jealousy.

"Hey, Chad, do you mind walking behind me?"

So he stepped back and watched as the dark-haired girl slide closer to his friend.

He knew he should've turned away then. He should've just left Troy with Gabriella and become a real person.

But he knew he couldn't. Stepping out of Troy's shadow wouldn't have made him a separate person…

It would've killed him.

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Ryan watched Chad carefully from his space.

He had changed since Gabriella's appearance at East High. Everyone had. The school was now a big melting pot where anyone could be friends with anybody. It was (and he would never say it near Sharpay) a kind of relief for him. It also meant no one could really mock anyone.

But now he felt sort of sorry for one of the guys who used to slip notes in his locker saying… things he didn't want to repeat.

He couldn't leave Sharpay's shadow though. If he did, she might never be there in front again. All he had was her.

It would've killed him to let her go.

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_Now I walk behind you._

_Do you even see?_

_Everything you do_

_Kills me slowly._

_You're living life without me,_

_And I can't ever forgive you._

_I hope you're happy._

_I'll never be beside you._

_One step behind,_

_And slightly to the right._

_I still follow you_

_But you're a dimming light_

_And it's getting hard to see_

_How I could stand_

_To be a man_

_Standing in your shadow._

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_I'll always be behind you._

_Never by your side._

_Without you_

_I have no underline._

_You say you'll never leave me._

_I'll have to take your word,_

_Because without you, I have nothing to be_

_Except an empty shell._

_I think I like to think_

_That I trust what you say._

_But I have to keep on thinking that_

_Other wise I'll fade._

_Always two steps back,_

_I hope one day you find,_

_That I'm always there to catch you,_

_Please don't leave me behind._

---

_**I could always be there for you,**_

_**I could take a bullet for you.**_

_**But you'd still always be a step ahead,**_

_**And I'd be lying there,**_

_**Dead.**_

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**I know the poem was random and just plain ****bad**** (I suck at poetry), but I thought it would be a good way to end the story. The last stanza is supposed to be both of them.**

**Okay, I want to give a shout out to Idio-Cynic for their story **_**Four People Who Really Hate Sharpay**_**. That bit about Chad made me think, "Oh, he's sort of the alternate Ryan" which got me all accursedly inspired and stuff, so yeah. **

**Sorry the Ryan bits aren't written so well. I don't know why they're not as good. **

**Oh yeah, I can do a second chapter to this if popular demand says, so if you want to read another part of this, REVIEW!**

**-Old Fiat s. Italy**


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